Were we ever disappointed! Recently, our parent company, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines unveiled a street-long magazine cover billboard on New York’s Broadway. But where was POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY?? Nowheresville! But with 30 magazines in the HF stable and billboard room for only eight, we had to wait our turn.

Death, blindness, maiming, and fire are among the dire possibilities mentioned in some recent lens and camera instructions. For your edification and enjoyment, here is the first verbatim installment, with more to follow in future issues.

“Where did the cross come from?” Alice Gowland, wife of famed photographer Peter Gowland asked us. “Are those white forms part of a KKK rally,” she wrote, “or two aliens trying to get back to that spaceship hovering at the top of the picture?

Delight in the details! Whether you’re shooting flowers against a distant lighthouse or a cat on a hot tin sign, mind the minutiae.

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1st ($300) The coast is clear: With great depth of field, you can indeed see forever. Stacy Boom of Richmond, California, had always wanted to take wide-angle landscapes like this; it was the chief reason she recently invested in a Canon Tilt and Shift lens.

Where did that dam lenscap go? Herewith, simple answers for putting things where they’d best be kept.

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The behind-the-back trick

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HOW NOT TO CARRY YOUR CAMERA, BUT YOU MAY WANT TO DO IT ANYWAY (TO TAKE CANDIDS SURREPTITIOUSLY)

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Herbert Keppler

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Breathes there a photographer with a small-aperture zoom or single-focal-length lens who doesn’t think a larger-maximum-opening lens would be more betterer? Besides greater low-light exposure ability or faster shutter speeds, lenses that are one or more f-stops faster furnish brighter viewing and snappier focusing.

It was a hard lesson for camera companies, but it was fairly predictable.... The APS cameras that caught the public imagination were the ones that went beyond the conventional look and feel of standard-issue 35mm point-and-shoots. Canon’s ELPH is the obvious paradigm, a design now ironically imitated by a host of other manufacturers.

We’ve recently tested some long-zoomed cameras in both 35mm and APS flavors, and the experience has once again raised the issue of close-focusing gremlins. It’s not that long-zoomed point-and-shoots can’t focus close. The Yashica Profile camera tested here, for example, can focus to 1:5 magnification—which means you can pretty much fill the frame with a postcard-sized object.

A self-taught photographer, this teacher has learned a lot about taking winning travel and nature shots, but even more about the creative process.

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MUZIKA AT A GLANCE

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Raymond Muzika

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Jason Schneider

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Students in Raymond Muzika’s classes in government, economics, U.S. history, and Business Careers undoubtedly learn a lot from their affable and articulate high school teacher, but not all of it comes from books and lectures. Indeed, word of his photographic prowess has gotten around, and many of his pupils at Myrtle Beach (SC) High School now ask:

With exciting locations and top instructors, a world-class photo workshop is born. First stop? The wild American West!

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Peter Kolonia

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How would you like to observe pros as they work, watch them analyze a scene, and see them solve photo problems firsthand? What would you give to shoot at their sides, and then have the pros critique your images afterwards, even reviewing portfolios of your past and current work?

What’s the minimum photo equipment kit you can possibly get away with?

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A marvelous marker

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Tim Davis

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Renee Lynn

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We’ve all seen those stories and columns about “my ideal camera kit,” complete with a jaw-dropping array of two dozen lenses, six camera bodies (not including the 2¼ stuff, of course), and enough system accessories to sink a good-sized frigate.

Richards: This is a picture that I like and dislike simultaneously. What I like about it is it reminds me of one of those classic Life magazine pictures of humorous setups with kids. And, of course, the juxtaposition of the heads almost in a straight line, and all looking at something, is charming and kitschy in an American sort of way.

Is the smiling canoeist on our September ’48 cover a natural? Sure, but photographer L. Willinger of L.A. enhanced his aquatic portrait by manipulating both subject and lighting. First, he added water lilies to the fore-ground by picking some at other areas of California’s Echo Lake and wiring them to empty stems.

Photo manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and photofinishers often initiate interesting marketing and educational programs for consumers. In this new, occasional column we’ll cherry pick the ones we think are the most useful.

What is the ideal distance for taking portraits? I’ve never found any information on this subject. Willy Ju, via Internet There really is no ideal distance for taking portraits. A portrait can be head-and-shoulders or full length, and there’s even group portraiture.

I read your report on Fuji vs. Kodak in the April ’98 issue [page 64] and found it very informative. But there are a lot of large companies that sell film under their own names, such as Sears, Wal-Mart, CVS, Fox, and some mail-order processing plants such as Dale, Signature, and Seattle.

Top National Geographic magazine photographer James L. Stanfield tells you how he made these specially selected pictures from his new book.

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How much I didn't know

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National Geographic photographer Jim Stanfield tells how he works

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Bred in the bone, photography seemed to be pre-ordained for me. I grew up in a family of newspaper photographers whose careers spanned 40 years, from the pioneering days of continued from page 66 glass plates and flash powder to the early 35mm Leica. My father photographed such greats as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Judy Garland, and the notorious Al Capone.

Whether you’re buying or just browsing, here are the important features for nearly all 35mm SLRs.

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Peter Kolonia

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Julia Silber

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Find a comfortable chair, a good reading lamp, and dive into our annual directory of 35mm SLRs. If you’re just curious about how your SLR stacks up against the competition, go to it. But if you’re actually in the market for a new 35mm SLR, then perhaps a more systematic approach is called for.

When is a phony panoramic not a phony? When it’s done with a full-frame fisheye!

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PO’ MAN’S PANORAMAS!

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DON’T GET PANORAMA TUNNEL VISION

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Some current full-frame fisheye lenses

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PAQs (Panoramically Asked Questions)

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Dan Richards

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Probably no photographic term is cause for more controversy, hysteria, wailing, and gnashing of teeth than “panorama.” ft was simple once. Panorama simply meant a longer-than-normal shape photograph taking in a wide view of a scene—say, a third of the horizon, about 110-120 degrees.

Just when you thought that all the ways to burn, tear, and otherwise distress a photograph had been discovered...

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A Jewish perspective

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P.K.

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How many darkroom techniques were discovered by accident? Probably dozens. To their number, add wax displacement, a technique discovered by Charles Citron, an American-born artist living in the Netherlands. One day, Citron, a sculptor who accepts commissions in media as varied as bronze, fabric, even rubber bands, was heating the wax he uses for molding bronzes, when he knocked a small black-and-white proof print into the molten liquid.

What’s the best way to get photos into a computer? Use a film scanner!

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Flatbed vs. film scanners

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Film scanner or flatbed scanner?

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How important is density range?

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How important is color bit depth?

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FUJIFILM IMAGE-SCANNER AS-1

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HP PHOTOSMART PHOTO SCANNER

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KODAK ADVANTIX FILM DRIVE FD 300

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KONICA QSCAN FILM SCANNER

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MINOLTA DIMAGE SCAN DUAL

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MINOLTA DIMAGE SCAN MULTI

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NIKON SUPER COOLSCAN 2000

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OLYMPUS ES-10S

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POLAROID SPRINTSCAN PLUS

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Michael J. McNamara

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In the last year, computer prices have sunk faster than the Titanic, and that means it’s a great time to invest in a digital darkroom (a high-speed computer with 32MB of RAM memory or more, a decent 17-inch or larger monitor, imaging software, and a photo-quality printer).

One of the newest and most exciting features found on any film scanner is the automatic Digital Image Correction and Enhancement (ICE) utility found on the Nikon Super Coolscan 2000. According to Nikon, the ICE technology (developed by an Austin, Texas, firm called Applied Science Fiction) can automatically remove dust, fingerprints, and surface scratches from film slides and negatives.

Hands on: Average in size, and fairly light in weight for a zoom in this range. Well finished in satin-textured, cream-colored enamel with extra wide, ribbed, rubberized zoom ring, narrower but easily grippable manual-focus ring of similar material.

Hasselblad has pulled a neat switcheroo: it has replaced the entry-level camera in its 200-series line (the 201F) with the more advanced 202FA and somehow managed to lower pricing in the process. The new-comer adds TTL metering and motor-drive compatibility, while retaining virtually all of its predecessor’s talents.